Passion

What's your passion? I was asked this question a number of years ago and I found myself not being able to give an answer. It was disturbing to think that I couldn't come up with an answer to such a question. I was certainly very busy in my life, but was I busy doing things about which I was not passionate?

Life is short. You only have a certain amount of time to spend. Its like currency. None of us have inexhaustible bank account. If you do, give me a call. If we spend all of our money on things we don't really want, it leaves us with a sense of emptiness. If we spend all of our time on things that we don't really care about, it also leaves us with a sense of emptiness.

What are you passionate about, and how does it relate to your purpose? Janet Mock in her blog at janetmock.com shared what she calls a Passion-Purpose matrix. It sounds complicated, but it really isn't. It's actually very simple:

1. Write down everything you're good at.
2. Write down everything you enjoy doing.
3. Write down everything that makes you feel as if you're giving back, anything that gives you a sense of purpose.

Mock wrote, "from those three lists, look for the thread that makes them similar, the common theme between all three and highlight those similarities." It is among those similarities that you will find the cross section where your talents, happiness and purpose meet. You'll find your passion.

It's not quite over once you find your passion. There's this little thing called doing it. I think the biggest danger to pursuing our passion is comfort. We have a tendency to live our lives in a state of comfort. Even if we don't really like what we are doing, we do it because it is familiar and doesn't challenge us. In short, we know we can do it...there is no fear of failure. It reminds me of the last two lines in Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb":

The child is grown, the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.

What's my passion? Relationships. I am very passionate about developing meaningful relationships. When I look at life, I don't see much else that is important. Money is spent on things that go out of style, rust away or get thrown out. Accomplishments are fleeting. You are the hero one day and forgotten the next. Its the relationships in our lives that can truly last forever. We are all on a journey through this life, and it sure is a lot more enjoyable to share that journey in a meaningful way with others.

I have spent the last six years in a doctoral program for the very purpose of helping people to strengthen and repair relationships. I have had to learn how to repair some of my own broken relationships before I could ever help others. When I perform a mediation and two opposing sides leave with a restored relationship, I feel a sense of purpose. I hope to spend the rest of my life trying to figure out how we can all live together in a more peaceful and meaningful way, and helping others to do just that.

What's your passion, and what are you doing to tie it to your purpose?